Champagne taste on a beer budget!

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While I continue to edit pictures from our day trip to Montserrat, I wanted to share a few thoughts. As mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on paring down my closet and as a result have become even more aware of my consumption. While I am no saint, I have not had much inkling for clothes shopping of late. Instead, I have started to explore accessories, namely jewelry and watches (although I have yet to make any purchase!). Learning how to sew has also made me more aware of fit and the quality of a garment, both of which makes me even pickier to clothes shopping!

I digress, as I wanted to share a few articles that I found interesting. Like most, I enjoy bargain shopping but this article has enlightened me to the reality of discount and outlet stores. While I have always known that outlet stores like Banana Republic Factory Outlet and J.Crew outlet’s items are produced for the stores, the real eye opener was discounted retailers such as TJ Maxx.

The tragedy of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh shone an unfavorable light on fast fashion and consumption last year. This article continues to share on the lack of accountability of high street/fast fashion brands, making me rethink about purchasing from the brands mentioned.

Meanwhile, on the luxury end of consumption, this article is hardly surprising to me. Perhaps I should join the bandwagon? 😉

For over two months, G was commuting on a weekly basis to Netherlands for work that we would only see each other on the weekends. While I tend to throw a pair of pants and a top when we go out during the weekends, I decided to dress up a bit for one of our weekend lunch dates at that time.

I have had this top since forever (14 years?) that I can’t seem to part with. (What’s not to love about Peter Pan collars?!) I’m also glad that I decided to alter the original cocktail dress into this skirt since I have been able to wear it more often than I ever wore the dress (see here).

Of late, I have been a tad obsessive with paring down my clothes. (I have started taking inventory of my clothes!) You know something is wrong when I only bought THREE items from ZARA’s Summer sale since I usually pick up quite a few things during their sales. (In case you’re wondering, I bought an open back knit top and two pairs of opaque tights from the sales.) I have been moving towards minimalism and am tempted by the idea of a capsule collection/wardrobe. While I am far from achieving a minimalist wardrobe, I have been quite inspired by Unfancy, a blog on a minimalist wardrobe.

Caroline, the photographer/blogger behind Unfancy shares her daily unfancy outfits consisting of items from her capsule wardrobe. She shares what is a capsule wardrobe, how to build one, and various other tips on her blog. I find her outfits to be simple and refreshing, perhaps a backlash to the majority of personal style bloggers that favor consumption and overlayering/stacking. If you, like me, are seeking inspiration from minimalism, do head over to her blog.

On our second day in Barcelona, we were off to an early start as our tickets to visit Parc Güell was scheduled for 8.30am. G’s cousin who lives in Barcelona had suggested that we booked our tickets (€7 per adult) in advance and try to visit early to avoid crowds. We took the Metro and got off at Vallcarca, one of the two Metro stops close to Parc Güell. We got a surprise when we saw the hill that we had to climb to get to the park! Granted, there were escalators between each block but it was only for the uphill direction. Well, it was all worth it as there were only few crowds, mostly tour groups and the view as well as the park itself was beautiful. Needless to say, Gaudi‘s handiwork did not fail to impress us. I shall let the pictures do the talking… (WARNING: Picture heavy post!)

Next on our itinerary was a visit to the famous La Sagrada Familia that has been in construction since 1882. Once again, we purchased our tickets in advance (€19.30 per person), which included a visit to one of the two towers (Navity or Passion). If one had to pick only one of Gaudi’s works to visit in Barcelona, this would be my pick. Gaudi’s magnificent work of art La Sagrada Familia is absolutely breathtaking. One can easily spend hours in the building admiring the architecture and his extraordinary vision. I was mesmerized by the beautiful stained glass and can easily spend a few hours staring at the vivid colors. There were also a few exhibitions housed in the building, some of which gave an insight to Gaudi’s architectural influences. G and I particularly enjoyed the 3D exhibition where we could touch the objects demonstrating his architecture ideas. We ended our tour by visiting the Passion tower which had a great view of the city.

After the visit, we headed back to our AirBnB apartment to rest before heading out for dinner in the neighbourhood. Our host had recommended Pizza L’avia as a restaurant with good local food that was inexpensive. Since we’ve been having tapas for our previous meals, I was delighted to find paella at the restaurant and ordered that for dinner. G as usual ordered pizza. (His goal is to eat pizza in every country that he visits!) The paella was bit too greasy for my liking but otherwise, the taste was decent. G however, wasn’t too pleased with his pizza due to the use of local cheese, which he found unappetizing.

After dinner, we headed to Museu Picasso which offers discounted rates on Thursday nights. We only paid €15 for our tickets with included an additional exhibition. Discounted tickets however can only be purchased in person after 7pm but since we were there early, we didn’t have to wait too long to purchase our tickets. Regular admission is otherwise €11 per adult.

As photographs were not allowed in the museum, I have none to show other than the entrance and a pretty snap of the blue skies from the courtyard past 8pm. I have to say between the Van Gogh Museum and the Picasso Museum, I much preferred the former in Amsterdam. I guess I prefer Van Gogh’s style of art to Picasso’s.

If you missed my first post on Barcelona, it’s here and the outfit details for this post is here. We’ll be off to explore the mountains outside Barcelona for the next post!

A month flew by since my last post and I have been plagued by issues with computers! My personal laptop won’t allow me to log in although I typed in the correct password, so I was using G’s spare laptop until it decided to go crazy on me. G has since fixed my personal laptop thankfully, but most of my pictures were on his laptop. It’s been a fun ordeal but almost everything is sorted now although I no longer have access to Photoshop just as I was getting back into the groove. Harumph! Well, G reckons a new laptop is in the horizon.

On a happier note, I have been practicing my sewing and I have since upcycled a dress into a peplum top, sewed a top out of vintage scarves, and hemmed G’s jeans into shorts. The first two were done with help from my instructors in class, since I’m still a newbie. I have also made some cushion covers as my first sewing project. I recently wore the top I made from vintage scarves out to lunch with G,which is the highlight of this outfit.